SpaceX founder Elon Musk jumps for joy at a gathering after NASA commercial crew astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blast off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station on May 30, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Jonathan Newton | Washington Post | Getty Images
Elon Musk has said his friendship with Google co-founder Larry Page soured in June 2015. tesla and space x CEO’s 44th birthday party. There, Page reportedly called Musk a “speciesist” for saying he preferred humans to future digital life forms.
It happened as they were discussing the terrifying possibilities of artificial intelligence.
Musk’s 55th birthday is just weeks away, and SpaceX has just completed its largest IPO in history, making him and Page the two richest people in the world. Mr. Musk’s net worth has ballooned to more than $1 trillion, while Mr. Page’s net worth is far behind at just under $300 billion. Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, is in third place.
The rift may never be repaired, but Musk’s company is more closely connected to Google than ever before. Thanks to Google’s $900 million investment in SpaceX in 2015, the year of its infamous birthday party, the search giant owns about 4.9% of Musk’s reusable rocket maker, which is now poised to become a major player in the AI space.
Just before its IPO, SpaceX announced it would lease its AI infrastructure to Google for $920 million per month for 32 months. The deal could bring in $30 billion in revenue for SpaceX’s troubled AI business and was touted by SpaceX bulls heading into the IPO.
In the 11 years since Musk and Page’s relationship soured, their worlds have collided countless times and their businesses have partnered and competed against each other. Here are five events over the past decade that have cemented their bond, for better or worse.
Musk launches OpenAI to compete with Google DeepMind
In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, who ran startup incubator Y Combinator. Musk had a clear goal: to create a “counterbalance” to Google DeepMind, the leading AI research institute.
It was the same year that Google invested $900 million in SpaceX.
In a message to be played in court years later, Mr. Musk told Mr. Altman that if left unchecked, Google could gain monopoly control over one of the world’s most powerful technologies.
Musk also took aim more directly at Google, recruiting AI researcher Ilya Satskeva from DeepMind to OpenAI.
Mr. Sustkever is a co-founder of OpenAI and is known for his groundbreaking work in research that enabled the development of the company’s blockbuster AI models and flagship product, ChatGPT. He then left to start Safe Superintelligence, which became a Google Cloud customer in 2025.
Musk follows Google with self-driving cars
Google launched its self-driving car division (now known as Waymo) in 2009. At the time, Tesla was taking orders for the upcoming Model S, an all-electric sedan that had not yet begun production.
Back in October 2020, Musk was ratcheting up his self-driving promise at Tesla. He began criticizing Waymo in posts on Twitter, suggesting Tesla was working on a more powerful system.
Since then, Musk has repeatedly criticized Waymo for relying on lidar sensors, which robotaxis use to navigate and avoid obstacles. Tesla’s self-driving system is still under development, but relies primarily on inexpensive cameras.
Waymo currently operates thousands of robotaxis in the United States, providing more than 500,000 paid trips each week in 11 cities. Public records show Tesla only has about 50 vehicles under its Robotaxi brand, operating primarily in Austin, Texas.
Tesla’s driver-assistance systems have become more sophisticated over time, but the company has yet to sell its Unsupervised (FSD) system, which the company claims will one day allow the vehicle to be used safely without a human supervisor at the wheel, ready to steer and brake as needed.
SpaceX becomes a major Google Cloud customer
In 2021, Google was working hard to steal cloud infrastructure market share from its larger rivals. Amazon Web services and microsoft Azure has scored a big win by signing a deal with SpaceX to help operate its Starlink satellite internet service.
SpaceX had about 1,500 Starlink satellites in orbit at the time, and its service had about 500,000 subscribers.
The company will use Google’s private fiber-optic network to quickly connect to cloud services as part of the deal, which will last about seven years, people familiar with the matter told CNBC at the time.
“The power of combining cloud and universal secure connectivity is a very powerful combination,” Vikash Khoury, Google’s head of global networking at the time and now overseeing global infrastructure, said in the announcement.
Suspicion of extramarital affair
Not all of the Google-related drama was about Page.
In December 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022 that Musk had an affair with Brin’s ex-wife, Nicole Shanahan. It took place during Art Basel in Miami.
According to reports, Bryn filed for divorce immediately after learning of the alleged affair.
After the news broke, Musk denied claims about a romantic relationship with Shanahan. He also disputed his rift with Bryn by posting a selfie taken at a party in San Francisco, where Bryn was seen laughing with attendees near Musk.
In his authorized biography of Mr. Musk, Walter Isaacson writes that the SpaceX and Tesla CEOs “artfully maneuvered themselves into positions where they could take selfies with Brin, who tried to avoid them.”
In a 2023 interview with People magazine, Shanahan denied having an affair, but said the allegations had left her with “debilitating” aftereffects. She quickly connected with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and became his running mate in his unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. Kennedy currently serves as President Donald Trump’s health secretary.
Role reversal in the cloud
Earlier this month, SpaceX became Google’s cloud provider.
SpaceX announced a deal to rent AI computing power to Google for about 32 months for $920 million per month. A Google Cloud spokesperson told CNBC that the deal was made “to ensure we have the bridging capacity to meet rapidly increasing customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which exceeds our expectations.”
SpaceX said in its filing that if SpaceX fails to deliver the required amount of AI chips by September 30, Google can terminate the agreement “after a one-month grace period.” Starting this year, either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days’ notice.
For some investors, the deal boosted SpaceX’s AI story and showed it could potentially generate returns on the initial capital investment needed to build the company’s Colossus data center in and around Memphis, Tennessee.
The announcement came just before SpaceX’s IPO.
Alphabet’s 4.9% stake in SpaceX was worth more than $100 billion as of Friday’s close, making it Google’s most lucrative private market bet.
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